Why green gas is Scotland's £10bn economic opportunity
Antony Green, Chief Strategy and Regulation Officer
| SGN
Biomethane can unlock Scotland's economic potential, create jobs and support a pragmatic, more affordable energy transition.
At SGN, we operate the gas network that delivers energy to 1.9 million customers across Scotland. While our day job is keeping that network safe and reliable, we're also preparing for a lower-carbon future.
Scotland has an opportunity to build a homegrown green gas industry that supports economic growth, strengthens energy security and creates thousands of skilled jobs. Yet one of our greatest renewable resources is hiding in plain sight: sustainable feedstocks from farms, the food industry, distilleries and energy crops.
Biomethane offers a practical way to unlock that potential. Produced from farm slurry, food waste, sewage, distillery byproducts and crops, it can be injected directly into the existing gas network. For well over a decade, we have led the way in injecting biomethane into our networks, with the equivalent of one in ten homes on mains gas now supplied by this green gas.
This means homes and businesses can benefit from lower-carbon energy without any action or additional spend needed by customers because there is no need to replace boilers or appliances.
Another key benefit of biomethane is energy security. This homegrown energy, unlike electricity, can be stored until it's needed. That flexibility becomes increasingly valuable as more renewable electricity comes onto the grid, providing reliable green energy when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. In turn, it helps maximise renewable electricity while strengthening the resilience of our energy system.
This is a green revolution that is happening right now. Scotland already has 25 biomethane plants connected to the gas network, supplying enough renewable gas to meet the annual gas demand of more than 208,000 households.
But we've only just scratched the surface. And we want to go much further.
The largest source of biomethane in Scotland comes from whisky production, an industry that supports around 40,000 jobs. The sector has embraced distillery byproducts to generate renewable gas and decarbonise production. Yet only 2.5% of organic farm waste is currently used to produce biomethane, with significant scope to expand production through agricultural feedstocks and energy crops, creating new opportunities for rural Scotland and farmers to boost their income.
New research from the Green Gas Taskforce, supported by SGN, shows Scotland has enough sustainable feedstocks to produce 19 TWh of biomethane by 2050 – around half of Scotland’s current gas demand. That's enough renewable gas to meet the equivalent annual gas demand of over three quarters (76%) of Scottish homes while supporting around 8,000 jobs, mainly in rural communities.
The economic benefits are just as compelling. This report found that 85p of every pound invested in biomethane remains within the UK economy – more than any other renewable energy source. Expanding domestic biomethane production would also reduce our reliance on imported gas while creating long-term investment and employment here in Scotland.
Too often, discussions about the energy transition focus on entirely new infrastructure. Biomethane is different. It allows us to reuse the modern, critical national infrastructure we already have in the gas network while supporting jobs and sectors central to Scotland's economy, from agriculture to food production and whisky.
Biomethane deserves a much bigger role in Scotland's energy future. It's proven at delivering low carbon energy in homes and businesses in Scotland today, and can be deployed using existing infrastructure, while offering wider benefits through energy storage and system flexibility.
Scotland already has the resources, infrastructure and expertise. The opportunity now is to turn those advantages into investment, jobs and homegrown energy.
The question isn't whether biomethane should be part of our energy transition, but how quickly can we move to unlock its full potential for Scotland.
Learn more about Scotland’s Green Gas Opportunity.
